Ticket Office Closures – AVRUG Statement

AVRUG Chair Tim Calow has issued a statement on the proposed ticket office closure plan, announced last week.

“We are opposed to the proposal to shut ticket offices at Keighley, Bingley, Shipley and Bradford Forster Square. This is part of a national proposal to shut the vast majority of ticket offices. It seems to have come from our government and to be aimed at escalating the ongoing dispute with the RMT. 

This proposal is likely to disadvantage significant numbers of passengers – especially those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged in a variety of ways. There are many people who do not have access to or are unable to use mobile phones to purchase tickets. The ticket machines are currently not easy to use.

View of Skipton Ticket office from the platform

There are also a range of tickets which cannot be purchased from ticket machines. Conductors can sell these – however Northern currently insist that passengers must not board trains before they have purchased tickets.

There is a real need for passengers to be assisted on their journeys in a variety of flexible ways – particularly when services are as unreliable as they currently are. Currently provision of information to passengers at times of disruption is particularly poor (worse than I can ever recall).

These proposals do not seem to address the need to assist passengers. Plans need to be developed on a station by station basis. This proposal does not indicate how this might be done”

Bingley Ticket Office

 

Further reading –

https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/consultation-2023

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/23636846.bradford-train-ticket-offices-risk-closure/

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/23634119.bradford-councillor-hits-ticket-office-closure-plan/